REV UP YOUR OUTDOOR LIVING WITH EASY-CARE PLANTS
Low-maintenance flowers, foliage mean less work, more play
May 17, 2012 – The desire for low-maintenance landscapes just keeps growing,
according the latest gardening and landscaping surveys. At the same time, Americans’
love for outdoor amenities like fire pits, grills, dining areas and seating shows no signs of
waning (see “Recent
Statistics”).
So combining the two should
mean less work and more
play, right? Here, experts
suggest fuss-free flowers and
foliage for outdoor living.
“Whether you’re relaxing
during a private moment in
your personal sanctuary or
are hosting a dinner party,
you don’t want to come out to a tired, ailing landscape,” says Anthony Tesselaar,
cofounder and president of Tesselaar Plants. “The idea is to go for something that’s
easy-care, with season-long interest, so you never have to worry about what’s outside
your door.”
“We all lead such busy lives,” agrees California landscaper and North Coast Gardening
blogger Genevieve Schmidt. “You don’t want an outdoor living space where you’re
looking at more chores or another to-do list.”
Not-so-needy blooms
If you’re looking for less watering, spraying and pruning, flowers aren’t out. Schmidt
regularly uses drought-tolerant, blooming perennials like catmint, hardy cranesbill
geraniums, ornamental sages, Russian sage, lavender, lion’s tail, euphorbia, sunrose,
artemisia and phlomis.
Landscape roses are another favorite of Schmidt’s, and she often turns to the Flower
Carpet® line. Often called “desert roses” in the southwest, these shiny-leaved, colorful
bloom factories can be a great choice for low-maintenance, season-long color in beds or
containers.
When planted en masse, carpet roses (which spread more horizontally than vertically and
become covered with a blanket of blooms) are also a great way to quickly fill in a large
bed while turning it into a more low-maintenance, sustainable landscape.
The Flower Carpet range of roses, notes Tesselaar, won high marks in the Dallas
Arboretum’s famous
plant trials in extreme
heat. The series has
also won the most
awards for diseaseresistance; most
notably, Germany's
coveted All
Deutschland Rose
(ADR) designation,
the world's top honor
for disease-resistant
roses. “And if you
want roses in
containers, which
succumb to drought
even quicker, Flower
Carpet's Next Generation line offers even better heat and humidity tolerance.”
Another Tesselaar plant that did well in the Dallas Arboretum trials was the Storm™
series of agapanthus (lily of the Nile). Say Tesselaar: “It offers up to three flushes of
blooms a season with full clusters of strappy foliage in between for season-long interest.”
Jimmy Turner, Senior Director of Gardens for the Dallas Arboretum, says it’s good for
mass planting because of its sturdy, multiple flower stalks, uniform height and multiple
flushes of blooms, each lasting six to seven weeks. But, Tesselaar notes: “It’s really a
head-turner when it's by itself in a pot."
Schmidt also recommends native and adapted plants (those that naturally grow or thrive
in your area without using a lot of resources, respectively): “Native plants are especially
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nice for outdoor leisure areas, because you’re inviting in the local cycles of wildlife and a
balanced local ecosystem, which means wonderful extras like singing birds, the sight of
butterflies and
nature’s own methods
of pest and disease
management.”
There’s a native plant
society for almost
every state, she
notes, and you can go
to your state’s page to
learn more about
native plants in your
area.
Fuss-free foliage
Low-maintenance foliage can also soften and add character to outdoor living spaces.
“Going without flowers doesn’t mean going without color,” says Tesselaar. The colorfully
foliaged Tropicanna® cannas, which can handle wet feet, can be potted and set right into
your favorite water features. And the dark-red, strap-like foliage of Festival™ Burgundy
cordyline is so extremely drought tolerant and pest resistant, you’ll wonder if it’s real. Its
basal-branching, low-growing structure allows for fuller, more compact clumps and a
gentle fountain effect – perfect for containers or color blocking around your favorite
outdoor living spots.
Festival, which is only hardy in Zones 7 or warmer, also overwinters beautifully as a
houseplant, says Tesselaar: “So you can simply bring the patio pot in or out depending
on the season, or replant it in the landscape year after year.”
Schmidt loves the bright-red color of Japanese blood grass, along with other lowmaintenance ornamental grasses like maiden grass (miscanthus – although it’s
considered invasive in some areas of the country), blue oatgrass, leatherleaf sedge,
fountain grass and noninvasive dwarf or clumping bamboo. Favorites in other parts of the
country include ‘Elijah Blue’ fescue, pampas grass (also invasive in some areas),
Northern sea oats, blue panic grass, muhly grass (also extremely salt tolerant and
prevents sand dune erosion) and little bluestem (hardy to Zone 3).
REV UP OUTDOOR LIVING WITH LOW-MAINTENANCE PLANTS
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Then there are Schmidt’s other foliage faves: phormiums (New Zealand flax), nassella
(needlegrass) and Mexican feathergrass. Succulents, she adds, have exploded in
popularity – in containers, hanging baskets and even as wall art.
Of course, the plants themselves aren’t the only part of a low-maintenance landscape,
say Schmidt and Tesselaar. There are also tips and tricks like mulching, grouping
together plants with
similar needs, efficient
irrigation, reducing your
lawn and maintaining
healthy soil. But lowmaintenance plants are a
key ingredient.
“Some work in the garden
is great if you enjoy it, but
we all have tasks we’d
rather not do,” says
Schmidt. “I know I’d rather
be doing artful pruning,
potting up containers and
deadheading instead of
weeding or mowing. The
idea is to reduce or eliminate what feels like work so you’re free to focus on what really
matters to you.”
Fact sheets
Flower Carpet roses
Storm series of agapanthus
Festival Burgundy
Hi-res images
Flower Carpet Pink, close up, by pool
Bluestorm agapanthus in the landscape
Tropicanna cannas in water feature
Festival Burgundy cordyline planted poolside
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Recent statistics
In the 2012 Residential Landscape Architecture Trends Survey conducted by the
American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), a whopping 96.6 percent of
respondents rated low-maintenance landscapes as “somewhat or very in-demand” In
particular, 85.4 percent of them had installed native or drought-tolerant plants in their
outdoor living spaces.
The Winter 2011 survey on sustainable gardening by the Garden Writers Association
Foundation showed similar results, with 58 percent already having reduced their watering
(58 percent) and 35 percent adding more drought-tolerant plants.
At the same time, respondents in the ASLA survey stressed their love for outdoor leisure
elements like grills (97.4 percent), pools (79.2 percent) and seating and dining areas
(95.7 percent).
About Tesselaar
Tesselaar Plants searches the world and introduces new plants for the home garden,
landscape, home décor and gift markets. Tesselaar undertakes extensive research and
development of its varieties and, once they’re selected for introduction, provides
marketing and promotional support for them through its grower and retail network.
Tesselaar carefully selects its licensed growers and purposefully keeps its portfolio of
plants small by design, resulting in consistently high-quality, dramatic, prolific plants that
are also environmentally friendly and exceptionally easy to grow.
The Tesselaar philosophy is to introduce exceptional plants while “making gardening
easy” for everyone, and so it makes its products as widely available as possible.
Tesselaar believes that the more gardeners there are, the better it is for everyone.
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Editor’s note: Other images of low-maintenance plants cited in this release are
available via the Image Library on Tesselaar’s online Newsroom.
Media Contact:
Laurie Riedman, Riedman Communications
[email protected] / 585 820 7617
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